Blog Traffic

October 7, 2005

State Blakely cases on SCOTUS agenda

Jonathan Soglin is doing a fine job tracking some state Blakely cases working their way up to the Supreme Court. Over at Criminal Appeal, this post notes that cert petitions are pending in Blakely cases from at least three states, and this page over at the FDAP website is tracking cases coming from California.

I believe Jonathan has been especially focused on Abeyta v. California, No. 05-5747, a case in which the defendant filed for cert in August (details here) and which is to be considered in conference by the Justices this Friday. Recall that, back in June, the California Supreme Court concluded in Black that Blakely was essentially inapplicable to California's determinate sentencing scheme (basics here, commentary here and here).

I am, of course, ever eager for the Supreme Court to take up new Blakely and Booker cases (as suggested in posts here and here). But I have a nagging suspicion that SCOTUS will continue to dodge Blakely and Booker issues over the next few months. And yet, given my poor track record for predicting SCOTUS timelines, I am not making any predictions.